Generally, internet communications are provided by connections that are a combination of wireline and optical networks. The wireline networks may include physical conductor connections, such as Ethernet, or other physical connections, wirelines connections such as cellular connections, wireless backhaul, microwave or the like, or a combination of physical and wireless links. Optical networks are known for their ability to provide high bandwidth while introducing very little signal noise into communications transiting the optical network. Optical networks are frequently combined with wireline networks, with the optical networks and wireline networks combining to provide an end-to-end communications connection.
Optical networks have reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADMs) that act as endpoints for legs in the optical network. The ROADMs allocate channels each having a predetermined bandwidth, and transmit data for a connection on the allocated channels. The nature of the optical networking requires that the connections between ROADMs be configured at the ROADMs prior to data being transmitted over the optical connection since ROADMs do not act as routers by interpreting the destination or routing on the fly from data in the transmission.